Congratulations to the winners of the first Sedex Awards

We were excited and honoured to host the very first Sedex Awards launched at the Sedex Conference 2017. Celebrating the fantastic work done by Sedex members worldwide, the Awards were designed to provide members with a chance to put their business in the spotlight and showcase continuous improvement efforts which have made a positive impact to the supply chain, people or the environment.

Our congratulations go to M&S (UK), AMC Group (Spain), ELEVATE and EICC, see below for more details. The number of entries was high and we were very impressed with the level of commitment shown by our members throughout the submission and shortlisting process. The entries were judged by an expert panel of judges who used the following criteria:

Scale of impact, including social, monetary and community benefits;

Level of innovation;

Possibility of replicating the project/programme

Sedex will be keeping you in touch with our winners as we follow their journey over the next 12 months.

We look forward to even more exciting submissions for next year’s awards, so please keep an eye out for our announcements in the coming months. Also, you can view a recording of the entire awards ceremony along with most of the Sedex Conference 2017 sessions on our Youtube channel.

M&S (UK) - Best example of continuous improvement.

Congratulations to M&S (UK) who were announced as winners of the ‘Best example of continuous improvement’ during the awards ceremony at the Sedex Conference 2017. The category is designed to showcase examples of how a positive impact has been made within the supply chain through a project or programme of continuous improvement.

About M&S

Sedex member type: Buyer (A)

Sector: Retail (Food)

Joined Sedex: Since inception

M&S is an international multi-channel retailer employing almost 86,000 people. Their UK turnover is split between food (55%) and general merchandise (45%). With 798 stores across the UK and a growing e-commerce business, M&S sell high-quality, great value food and remain the UK market leaders in womenswear, lingerie and menswear.

Continuous improvement

The M&S ‘How We Do Business’ (HWDB) Framework is a structured approach for M&S to work with its 300+ food suppliers to tackle negative supply chain impacts, and enhance their positive impacts. The Framework is structured around three areas: Ethical/HR & Community, Lean and Environment.

The HWDB Framework took 18 months to develop and was initially launched in 2010. M&S further boosted the programme by launching the communications campaign ‘Silver and Beyond!‘ in 2013 to ramp up progress and better inspire suppliers and internal teams alike.

M&S have continued to innovate and continually improve the programme, running more and more ‘Seeing is Believing’ visits between suppliers sites, measuring business benefits and celebrating supplier success.

They have integrated the HWDB framework with their broader ‘balanced scorecard’ and progress on their broader ‘Plan A attribute’ programme is part of their buying teams objectives. They also celebrate suppliers’ success by presenting certificates for silver and gold achievers at annual commercial conferences: these are the only supplier awards given out at these conferences, and therefore carry a high profile.

Louise Nicholls, Corporate Head of Human Rights, Food Sustainability (Plan A) and Food Packaging, says: “We are continually striving to improve the programme so that it delivers the best possible value to M&S and its suppliers. The 10 year anniversary of Plan A gives us an opportunity to re-examine the framework thinking about ‘what will be a world-class sustainable factory in 2030’?, as well as how can we harness advances in data collection technology to gather even better, more useful data.
We are also committed to spreading our understanding to the wider industry and beyond: to ensure that brands are working collaboratively on broad, sustainable, continuous improvement, in the same way that we have collaborated as an industry on ethical compliance initiatives in the last 10 years. We see this as an area of huge potential and are committed to playing a catalytic role. We believe Sedex represents an excellent forum for doing this and look forward to contributing to the emerging Continuous Improvement agenda”.

Results

• As of 1st February 2017, 92% of M&Ss supplier by volume are participating in the programme. 82 sites have achieved Silver level, and 4 sites have achieved Gold level – together this represents well over 50% of their buying volume;

• Driven by the framework, 60% of sites now send no waste to landfill (last year: 48%) and on average show a 31% reduction of waste per tonne of product;

• In addition, 52% of M&S food suppliers have reduced both their water and energy usage per tonne of product compared to last year, and over 30% have improved energy efficiency by at least 20% on their baseline;

• On human resources, 72% of the most recent supplier employee surveys show a satisfaction rating of 65% or more;

• Suppliers progressing on the frameworks have seen significant business benefit results, with sites achieving silver and gold growing their business with M&S twice as fast as those without.

“We use the HWDB framework for all of our sites, not just M&S sites, as we find it such a useful tool”. Technical Director, Samworth Brothers.

AMC Group - Best collaborative effort

Congratulations to AMC Group who were announced as winners of the ‘Best collaborative effort’ during the awards ceremony at the Sedex Conference 2017. The category is designed to showcase examples of how a supplier has used collaboration or partnership with customers, suppliers or other stakeholders to improve working conditions or to solve a responsible sourcing challenge.

About AMC Group

Sedex member type: Buyer/Supplier (AB)

Sector: Drinks and beverages

Joined Sedex: 2006

AMC Juice Division is the part of the AMC Group dedicated to squeezing, blending, filling and dispatching fruit and vegetable juices, nectars and other non-alcoholic beverages, as well as to researching and developing new ingredients and products in this field. The manufacturing sites are in Murcia (Spain) and Vlissingen (The Netherlands).

Collaboration

AMC realised that integrating CSR across complex supply chains is not an easy task, especially for a single unit company, so they decided to join the Juice CSR Platform to engage in a sector-wide approach.

The Juice CSR Platform, offers a space for collaboration and continuous improvement where all sector and supply chain stakeholders are included. It helps to build a CSR network in the juice industry, share information, collaborate and share good practices on CSR and responsible sourcing.

AMC has been involved by assisting and supporting the creation of working groups for Brazilian oranges and Polish apples, in collaboration with other stakeholders. Both working groups aim to tackle identified challenges related to ethical, environmental and economic sustainability.

Olimpia Ortiz, Quality Management Systems & CSR at AMC, says: “Together with the groups, we are helping educate people about the importance of supply chain integrity and a long-term vision. By sharing best practices with members, suppliers and the stakeholders involved, and demonstrating a meaningful change in the sustainable sourcing of raw material, we will secure a safe juice supply.
By going down the chain, we can see there is immense space for improvements at all levels for the raw material and origins we source from. By believing we are doing the right thing for our company, we are indirectly supporting different projects with different suppliers in different countries, which make the difference for our suppliers, their supply base and the community they’re in.”

Results

• The sector is gaining transparency in various aspects related to the production of Brazilian oranges, thanks to a transparent and public platform which periodically publish articles, references and initiatives;

• More participants and members have been engaged and joined to support the work, with the idea to expand it to other CSR projects;

• An internal paper has been written to share knowledge across the industry;

• Remote and on-field initiatives are set for 2017 to address identified hotspots;

• Communication by CitrusBR, the association of the Orange Juice Exporters, through the sustainablejuice.com website;

• A planned field visit in Poland at the end of April, together with other members;

• Results of the collaboration were presented at the Juice Summit 2016, held in Antwerp, by an AMC representative.

ELEVATE and EICC- Most innovative new programme.

Congratulations to ELEVATE and EICC who were announced as winners of the ‘Most innovative new programme’ during the awards ceremony at the Sedex Conference 2017. The category is designed to showcase examples of how an innovative supply chain monitoring, capacity building or worker engagement programme has helped support positive impact or continuous improvement within the supply chain.

About ELEVATE

ELEVATE is one of the world’s leading professional services firms specialising in sustainability and supply chain analytics, assessment, consultancy and outsourcing. ELEVATE leads the industry with innovative solutions to complex problems, designing and implementing customised programmes that provide complete insight into supply chain risk and social, environmental and business performance.

Innovation

The EICC partnered with ELEVATE to develop a unique 32-month long programme called Workplace of Choice. This impact-focused programme is strengthening the sustainability of Malaysia’s vital electronics sector by drawing on worker voice to promote safe and fair labour practices for foreign migrant workers, and instil a series of innovative educational and capacity building practices that support remediation.

The objectives of this programme have been to:

1) Understand how workers are recruited, screened and contracted in home and host countries. It achieved this through direct engagement via worker surveys;

2) Educate factory owners and senior management on changes in Codes of Conduct / requirements from brands / retailers, governments, and other stakeholders;

3) Support factories to identify gaps in their current practices and management systems with the updated requirements (e.g. recruitment process, contract preparation, passport retention, and internal communication mechanism);

5) Establish an independent, external third-party helpline that provides workers with an accessible and timely avenue to raise concerns or inquiries.

The Workplace of Choice programme was developed and implemented in collaboration with the EICC organisation, individual EICC members, Humanity United, Malaysian factories, local and foreign workers, ELEVATE, and local NGOs.

“ELEVATE has been an excellent partner on the development and implementation of the EICC Workplace of Choice program in Malaysia. Together, we have been uniquely positioned to strengthen the sustainability of the country’s technology sector by promoting safe and fair labor practices for foreign migrant workers”.Bob Mitchell, Vice President of Social and Environmental Responsibility, Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)

Results

• 78% of factories have reimbursed excessive recruitment fees or developed internal policies to prevent these practices; 79% of factories have made progress on passport retention;

• Third-party independent helpline for workers launched in December 2016 in 10 languages. 260 text messages or calls received to date (2 months).

“We feel fortunate to be part of EICC Workplace of Choice Program. The iPad-based worker survey and text message grievance based mechanism are the innovative ideas and technologies. With this program, we understood the employee’s needs easily. We look forward to learning more on EICC requirements through the program”.Kobe Precision Technology Sdn Bhd